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May 27, 2022
Whether or not you're a member of the NFT community you’ve definitely heard the name, Bored Ape Yacht Club. Bored Apes are a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs based on the Ethereum blockchain. The Bored Apes are known for their grungy monkey avatars with unique characteristics…some even more unique than others. The valuable aspect of these NFTs isn’t the artwork itself but rather what the asset can get you. It serves as a membership card that enables you to have exclusive perks that are made only available to current holders of the NFT. The first benefit is called The Bathroom, a community drawing board where Bored Ape owners can leave digital graffiti. Another benefit is access to a private Discord server where you can hang out and chat with other owners. All the Bored Apes were initially priced the same—0.8 ETH or about $190 at release. However they all sold out quickly and are now available via the secondary market OpenSea; as of now the floor price for an Ape on OpenSea is 108 ETH, or about $368,000.
So why are Bored Ape’s so important and expensive? Bored Apes serve as a digital identity and because the collection is so limited and the community is so exclusive people are willing and eager to pay a large sum to buy at a great price from current owners. Brands have also hopped on the bandwagon and bought themselves a Bored Ape with plans to incorporate it into their marketing strategy. Arizona Iced Tea purchased one in August 2021 and Adidas also purchased a BAYC NFT intending to develop a character and backstory. In order to understand the importance and selling/buying prices of these NFTs it is necessary to comprehend basic economics. Because there are only 10,000 Bored Apes, the supply of the NFT art is limited. Coupled with the massive interest in the brand, there is a high-demand/low-supply dynamic that inevitably drives prices up.
Community whether in real life or on the internet is something that most people desire. BAYC has taken innovative strides to create a desirable and engaged community. For example, in June 2021, every Bored Ape holder was allowed to 'adopt' a canine companion NFT for free (only paying for 'gas'). That's how the Bored Ape Kennel Club was born. The club used secondary sales of these canine companions to raise $1 million for animal shelters. Additionally in March 2022 the BAYC launched their own cryptocurrency, the APE coin. They then airdropped 10,000 APE tokens to each BAYC and MAYC (Mutant Ape Yacht Club) holder, which amounts to about $100,000 for each holder.
BAYC perks are beyond the digital world and APE coins are already finding utility within the BAYC community. Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa released an eight-track NFT mixtape only available for APE holders. Bored Ape has started hosting club members at real-life, offline events that will become a yearly tradition. Their first annual Ape Fest in November 2021, which included a gallery exhibition, a costume contest, and a party on a real 1000-capacity yacht off the coast of Manhattan. With support and ownership from celebrities such as: Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone, Mark Cuban, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Stephen Curry, Eminem, and Shaquille, the desire to become a member of this club has continued to skyrocket.
When celebrities lead people follow, but this is even more true for someone on a universal caliber such as Elon Musk. Last week when Musk changed his Twitter profile picture this morning to a collage of Bored Ape NFTs, ApeCoin rose 19% and hit a 24-hour high of $17.46, according to CoinGecko. However things then took a turn when he tweeted, “I dunno … seems kinda fungible”. After this seemingly mocking remark ApeCoin started to fall, and as of Wednesday at 10:35 a.m. EST, was trading at around $15.26. If you want your NFT to be valuable, have someone people perceive as influential backing you.
If you didn’t think Bored Ape was doing enough yet maybe you will now with their announcement of their Metaverse, Otherside. Otherside will be a decentralized metaverse with elements of gamification, rumored to contain virtual plots of land that include unique artifacts, natural resources, and rare characters. Otherside will be compatible with other blue-chip NFT projects including CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, and World of Women to name a few.